When the 2006 Winter Olympics started, I came home from work every day and watched ice skaters cry over sequins. I don’t know what my deal was, but I couldn’t get enough of the Olympics. Friends would come over to hang out, and I would make them watch speed skating. I'd be at a party and realize that I'd rather be watching the women's slalom. When that one Italian guy dropped the other Italian girl in the “ice dancing” competition, I couldn’t stop talking about the death stare they gave each other. It was amazing. You could almost see the years of crushed dreams repressed frustrations seeping out of them.
I’m into the Olympics. I’ve been counting down the days until the opening ceremonies on August 8 because it means that for three weeks, my life will be full of fencing rivalries, badminton drama and 14-year-old girls falling off the balance beam instead of doing what they should be doing—going through puberty. I thought I had a month left to wait, but I was wrong. I’d completely forgotten about the Olympic trials! My television politely reminded me of this fact yesterday, when it broadcasted track and field for my viewing excitement. I think I watched about three hours of it yesterday. So far, I’ve seen one man get a leg cramp three steps into the 100m race, a woman fall and break something important enough to put her in a wheelchair, and another woman who dove for the finish line and reached it…with her face. August is going to be awesome.
Here are some things I want to know about the Olympics:
1) What do the athletes do when they’re NOT competing? So every few years you get to try for a gold medal. And the rest of the time you just…play water polo?
2) What happens to the people who come in last place? They train so hard and then fail miserably. I bet they feel like jerks.
3) What the hell is up with rhythm gymnastics?
1) i think they just train all year for their sports other events. like, they have world championships every year right? so i bet they have the country level and continent level etc.-type competitions throughout the year. i saw a documentary about a Chinese softball player and it said they trained for the Olympics for 2 years by winning the Asia Cup and other stuff like that.
2) i got nothing.
3) umm...i LOVE rhythmic gymnastics. that and synchronized swimming are my favorites. they are actually the only events I watch. if i could've been in China during the Olympics, the only thing I would've wanted to see is RG. But Chinese people love it so tickets sold out really quickly. but seriously, i could watch it all day long. it's like magic.
Posted by: Ula | July 08, 2008 at 01:34 AM
yeah, i know there are other competitions, i just like to ignore that fact. plus, nobody cares about them anyway!
synchronized swimming bores me. rhythmic gymnastics just makes me laugh. it looks cool and I'm sure it's hard to do, but it is beyond lame. "oh, you're an Olympic athlete? what sport do you do?" "I dance with ribbons."
Posted by: Claire | July 08, 2008 at 09:06 AM